Marketing Measurement Theatre vs. Results That Actually Matter
Most campaigns “perform well”. The dashboards say so.
Numbers go up. Charts look healthy. Reports get circulated. And yet, somehow, nothing really changes.
Welcome to measurement theatre. Where effort is mistaken for effectiveness, and movement is mistaken for progress.
Let’s say this plainly:
If your campaign results can’t influence a business decision, they’re not results. They’re decorations.
Reach is not a result. Engagement is not a result. Coverage is not a result. They are inputs. Useful inputs—but only if they connect to something that actually matters.
The reason measurement gets messy is simple:
Most teams define success after the campaign, not before. Targets are adjusted. Context is added. Benchmarks appear retroactively. Everything looks reasonable. Nothing is decisive.
Effective campaigns define results upfront—and they’re uncomfortable by design.
They answer questions like the following:
What would success look like in sales conversations?
What objections should disappear?
What should people stop saying about us?
Where should demand come from that didn’t exist before?
These are harder to track. They require collaboration beyond marketing. They don’t fit neatly into weekly reports. That’s why they’re avoided.
Real results live in three places:
Behaviour:
Are people acting differently?
Belief:
Are people thinking about you differently?
Distribution:
Are you present in places and conversations that actually influence decisions?
If your measurement framework doesn’t touch at least one of these, it’s incomplete. The most dangerous metric is the one that keeps everyone comfortable. Green dashboards don’t build brands. They protect processes.
Here’s the final test.
Ask your leadership team:
How would we know this campaign worked without seeing a report?
If no one can answer that, the campaign was designed to look good—not to matter.
Closing thoughts
Campaigns fail less because of bad execution and more because organisations are afraid of clarity.
Clarity forces choices. Choices force accountability. Accountability makes results unavoidable.
That’s what effective campaigns are made of.
About the Author
Steve Gardiner (exec MBA) is a senior marketing and commercial leader at Lighthouse PR, bringing global experience from Accenture, Electronic Arts, Virgin Media, Telekom, and Etisalat. Latterly, as VP Business at Etisalat, he was responsible for $1.8B in revenue.
Today, Steve applies his strategic, marketing, and growth expertise to support Lighthouse PR clients as part of the agency’s service offering.